Power Development Department has blamed the consumers for the unscheduled power curtailments in the Valley, saying the peak demand of electricity has soared to double than the level that the department had estimated to be the peak for this year. According to the PDD as against registered load of 3,101 MW, the demand should have been around 1,551 MW but it is around 2,950 MW, which is being used by the consumers over and above registered connected load. The department blames the consumers for the uncontrolled use of the load in violation of their load agreements adding there are times when the aggregate load increases to levels which are beyond the handling capacity of local grid station.
So far so good. The PDD certainly has a point. It of course cannot meet the soaring demand from the available installed capacity. The department proffered the elaborate explanation after budget session witnessed massive protests and walkouts by opposition members over the prevailing power crisis in the state especially in the valley. But while one can hardly dispute the data about the massive disproportion between consumption of the electricity and its installed capacity, it is the PDDs passing the blame on to consumers that is troubling. More so, when it comes to blaming the people for a problem whose genesis lies in the PDD itself.
One can validly question the logic of holding people culpable for using the electricity over and above the agreemented load. Or, to put it more bluntly, blame them for power pilferage. For people can only pilfer power when they are allowed to do so. It is a well known fact that Power Development Department has failed to enforce the law. Its personnel are known to collude in the power theft for some gratification. And if as the PDD explanation implies, the metering system has been an absolute failure in the state, who is responsible for it. Surely, not the people. It is the department of power.
In the kind of system that we have built over the years, malpractices in everything we do travels from top down. The basic problem is that corruption in our state is structural in nature, inbuilt in the way our political culture has evolved over the years. This means even those who otherwise would want to be honest feel persuaded to act otherwise. From the point of view of the people, metering system has been a success. For the first time people in Valley learnt to pay for a service they otherwise took for granted. For every power thief there are scores of others who honestly pay their bills. But even among them the faith of many is shattered when they find their neighbours pilfering power and get away with it. The PDD would have been bang on target if it had accepted its failure to deliver electricity and implement the metering system. It would have hit the right chord by expressing its resolve to get its act right in the near future. But the department absolves itself of any responsibility. It is the people who are thieves. While such explanation will do nothing to redeem the situation it will further feed the resentment brewing among people against the government.
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